


Lian Yu

by quiveringbunny



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, OTA-Inspired, Original Team Arrow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 03:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiveringbunny/pseuds/quiveringbunny
Summary: Just a drabble, a bit loose with canon, featuring a conversation that might have happened in S2.1. And an edit I made.





	Lian Yu

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading this little drabble. I hope you like the image as well. I am posting OTA content to promote a campaign I am doing to encourage fans to become real heroes by signing up for the national bone marrow registry via this virtual drive. No financial donation is required to get on the list and save a life. Please check out: https://getinvolved.dkms.org/fundraiser/1522229  
> Please spread the word.

 

 

The flight back from Lian Yu promised to be tense. Once the seaplane Diggle had chartered to pick the team up was contacted, he, Felicity and their recently recovered leader, waited silently on the beach. Mostly silently. Occasionally, the IT expert bemoaned the sketchy satellite signal on her portable internet phone. (Seriously guys, we have direct line of sight. This shouldn’t be happening!) or commented on the vast array of deadly looking creatures washing up on the shoreline.

“That’s a starfish, Felicity,” John chuckled. “Not lethal last time I checked. Don’t you know anything about sea life?”

“No, John. But if I could get access to Google here, I swear I would look it up.”  Felicity looked up from the sand and caught Diggle’s eye, directing him to the figure of Oliver in the distance, roaming along the surf armed with a narrow length of driftwood he was using as a walking stick and potential weapon, looking for actual threats.

Felicity suddenly wondered whether they were really doing the right thing summoning Oliver, spiriting him away from this place. Were they doing it out of selfishness? Or were they saving him from his own tendency to wallow in negativity? God knew they were all capable of heading down that road.

Diggle sighed and walked slowly to join Oliver on his slow march by a stretch of seaweed that had accumulated 20 feet in from the waterline. He made a noise so his friend would know he was approaching.

“Hey, Oliver.”

“Digg.”

“The plane should be here in twenty.”

Oliver nodded.

“You know, I wanted to mention something to you yesterday when we got here, but I didn’t get a chance. I want to talk to you about it now.”

Oliver stopped walking, but rather than look Diggle in the eye, he looked out into the sea and nodded quietly.

“You mentioned your mission being a fool’s crusade, well I refuse to accept that. Because it ended up being a crusade for all of us, Oliver. We all wanted to stop Malcolm Merlyn and none of us imagined the outcome would result in Tommy and so many others losing their lives."

Oliver swallowed thickly, tamping down an emotional outburst.

“So, tell me, do you think I’m a fool for trying to stop Merlyn?”

“Of course not, Digg.”

“If you had never come back to Starling City to stop the Undertaking and I had found out about it some other way, I’d like to believe I would have stepped up to try to stop it on my own.”

Oliver took a minute to think about the gravity of his partner’s words and then sighed.

“Yeah, I guess you would.”

Diggle nodded.

“But there’s something else, Oliver. You were pretty harsh in what you characterize as failure.”

“Hundreds of people died.”

“Yes, they did. And you think you carry that burden more than anybody else, right?”

Oliver pursed his lips and breathed deeply through his nose. These were the kinds of conversations he fled Starling City to avoid.

“You said some pretty insensitive things. Well, let me tell you, nobody carried more guilt and regret over what happened that day then that woman over there.”

The vigilante’s eyes shot down to see where Felicity was standing under a palm tree trying to horde a bit of shade.

“While you and I were trying to get Merlyn,” Digg continued, “She bore the responsibility for stopping the earthquake. And when it turned out there was a second machine, something none of us imagined, she was devastated. As the tech person, she felt like it was her job to know about redundancy and she missed it.”

“We all missed it.”

“We did. But neither one of us had to experience the Undertaking in a basement, alone.”

“She was on the comms. She said it wasn’t that bad," Oliver countered, sounding a bit desperate. 

“Yeah. Then Tommy died and you turned yours off. It took three hours for me to get to her, Oliver. She wouldn’t call the rescue squad because she didn’t want them to find our base.”

“I wasn’t any good to anybody after Tommy, Digg. I didn’t even stay for the funeral.”

“I know. I also know that Felicity slept on my sofa for three weeks after that. She was a wreck.”

At that point, Oliver turned and looked at Diggle, a grimace on his lips.

“You don’t have to be a soldier to have PTSD, Oliver.”

Oliver looked over at Felicity again with new eyes. She was so strong, to have gone through that and she still wanted to move forward and help Queen Consolidated, help Starling City, and him.

“Is she better now?”

“Mostly. But I gotta tell you, talking about failure doesn’t help. She’s accepted it. I’ve accepted it. We had to because we face the consequences of it every day seeing what the city has become and looking into the eyes of people who have lost everything. Their homes. Their businesses. Their families.”

Oliver couldn’t even look at John Diggle now. It was all too much.

“But the way we’ve been able to able to deal with it is through the commitment we’ve made to doing whatever we can to make a difference. And that, Oliver, is not a fool’s errand.”

Oliver nodded.

In the distance, the steady buzz of an approaching airplane could be heard.

He watched Felicity, small in the distance, but no less formidable, as she approached the shoreline and scanned the sky for their ride home. He thought about her strength.

Felicity was an IT girl who was much more. Digg was a veteran, a body guard. But they were both heroes. Together, perhaps they could do more good.

Oliver looked into the warm eyes of his friend, who was really the only man in his life who resembled a brother now that Tommy was gone.

“No, it’s not.”

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.


End file.
